Flour is a powdery ingredient usually made from grinding wheat, maize, rye, barley or rice. As…

2 egg yolk beaten with 1 tsp water

Method

Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Sit the 1kg beef fillet on a roasting tray, brush with 1 tbsp olive oil and season with pepper, then roast for 15 mins for medium-rare or 20 mins for medium. When the beef is cooked to your liking, remove from the oven to cool, then chill in the fridge for about 20 mins.

While the beef is cooling, chop 250g chestnut (and wild, if you like) mushrooms as finely as possible so they have the texture of coarse breadcrumbs. You can use a food processor to do this, but make sure you pulse-chop the mushrooms so they don’t become a slurry.

Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil and 50g butter in a large pan and fry the mushrooms on a medium heat, with 1 large sprig fresh thyme, for about 10 mins stirring often, until you have a softened mixture. Season the mushroom mixture, pour over 100ml dry white wine and cook for about 10 mins until all the wine has been absorbed. The mixture should hold its shape when stirred. Remove the mushroom duxelle from the pan to cool and discard the thyme.

Overlap two pieces of cling film over a large chopping board. Lay 12 slices prosciutto on the cling film, slightly overlapping, in a double row. Spread half the duxelles over the prosciutto, then sit the fillet on it and spread the remaining duxelles over. Use the cling film’s edges to draw the prosciutto around the fillet, then roll it into a sausage shape, twisting the ends of cling film to tighten it as you go. Chill the fillet while you roll out the pastry.

Dust your work surface with a little flour. Roll out a third of the 500g pack of puff pastry to a 18 x 30cm strip and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Roll out the remainder of the 500g pack of puff pastry to about 28 x 36cm. Unravel the fillet from the cling film and sit it in the centre of the smaller strip of pastry. Beat the 2 egg yolks with 1 tsp water and brush the pastry’s edges, and the top and sides of the wrapped fillet. Using a rolling pin, carefully lift and drape the larger piece of pastry over the fillet, pressing well into the sides. Trim the joins to about a 4cm rim. Seal the rim with the edge of a fork or spoon handle. Glaze all over with more egg yolk and, using the back of a knife, mark the beef Wellington with long diagonal lines taking care not to cut into the pastry. Chill for at least 30 mins and up to 24 hrs.

Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Brush the Wellington with a little more egg yolk and cook until golden and crisp – 20-25 mins for medium-rare beef, 30 mins for medium. Allow to stand for 10 mins before serving in thick slices.

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Comments, questions and tips

Comments (211)

Ace_cox8th Oct, 2016

2nd time I've made it with great reactions from guests both times!! I always think you need extra Palma Ham and a few more mushrooms. Timings worked really well for medium rare. Just make sure you leave yourself enough time to put meat in and out of the fridge to cool.

This recipie differs from his Beef Wellington recipie posted on YouTube. Cook the mushrooms without butter or oil but do add wine. Don't cook the beef in the oven, seal it on all sides in a hot pan. cover the beef with English mustard once sealed. No water in the egg wash either.

Made this last night for a New Years Eve dinner party and it turned out well and everyone loved it. I'm just glad I read all the comments and tips, particularly about the cooking times. Why can't these be incorporated into the basic recipe? Ours was a short fat piece of fillet so I had to improvise with cooking times and the pastry sizes. It was cooked for 40 minutes without wrapping and 45 minutes at the end, far more time than the basic recipe states and it was nice and pink in the middle still. I'd also say that you don't need a 4cm pastry border - this is probably to allow for shrinkage when resting but is a bit over the top I think. I just added a bit of butter to the mushrooms when frying and this was ok. The duxelle looks like a small amount but it is enough! Oh and you must use fillet beef, it's worth it!

Used this recipe for the second time on Boxing Day and the family loved it. As long as you use the helpful tips and take your time it works a treat. The only mistakes I made were I forgot to chill it after sealing the edges and I lined my heated tray with foil, so the bottom stuck slightly to the foil. Tasted great and will definitely use this recipe again. Thank you.

First time I cooked this, I followed it exactly and my beef was very rare. Second time, I decided to pan sear the beef before its first cooking and I added a few minutes to the cooking time. The second time was perfect. So good. Blew my dinner guests away and I really enjoyed the cold leftovers the day after.

The flavours are all there with this dish. I seared the beef before putting in the oven for the first time (as someone had suggested), however timings were still all wrong. The poor cow was still running around the fields when I took it out after 35 minutes (2nd time). I think I will try again but leave in for an hour or so, because it did taste very nice, once we put it back in for half an hour.

Was really nervous about doing this for a dinner party having never done it before. I read a lot of comments and therefore changed the cooking times. It's not tricky. .just a lot of steps. I had a thick 1kg fillet so cooked it for 20 mins and then on the final cook i gave it 35 mins. ..turned out rare to medium rare.. perfect. The great thing is you do all the work in the afternoon and are relaxed for the dinner. I served it on kale with roasted balsamic baby carrots and parsnip puree. Made a pomegranate molasses sauce from Al Brown's book Stoked

This was just fabulous! Had a smaller bit of meat...just under a kilo so cooked for rare and came out perfectly medium rare. Hubby wasn't sure about the prosciutto, he didn't feel it needed it, I loved it! Don't be put off by the 'keen cook' thing it's time consuming prep wise but easy as anything...and all the prep can be done well in advance! Served with tray baked root veg, roast potatoes and horseradish gravy...clean plates all round!

Did this for Christmas Dinner and it was absolutely fantastic. Followed the recipe, but added an extra five minutes to the initial cooking time. The meat was rare, and was voted the best ever by family and friends. Served with celeriac mash, other seasonal veg, creamy mashed potatoes and shallot and red wine sauceAm now going to try individual Beef Wellingtons when I visit my son and family later this week..Superb - have yet to come across a bad Ramsay recipe!

I've tried this once with a different beef joint and it didn't turn out very well. I think I had the cooking times all wrong but I see no reason why it shouldn't work. The other problem obviously is different cuts of beef are best eaten at different stages of cooking. Hope this helps.

Very tasty, had it for Christmas day worked out well. I wrapped in pastry the day day brfore, there was a little trickle of juices leaking out but it worked out fine. Took an hour to cook on Christmas day, digital prob thermometer was invaluable. Reheated really well the next day, just covered in foil and put it in oven, stayed really moist. Excellent dish.

Fabulous! The whole family loved this and the beef itself was med rare as we like it, although the middle was more rare - perfect really because that's how the husband prefers his. Easy to follow instructions and I loved the fact that I could make in on a lazy Sunday afternoon and put it in the fridge till we were ready to cook.

Try it, it is lovely! Was fantastic served with Ramsay's Red Wine & Shallot sauce.

Made this yesterday for a family gathering. All went well apart from the confusion regarding timings alluded to in earlier posts. I didn't want too rare so went for extra time but ended up with only middle piece being medium so will need to amend for next time. Flavours were great and everybody loved it.....

Sorry Gordon, I'm not keen on your variation of this classic dish. The method works very well and the tips are very helpful. The realised dish finishes perfectly. My dislike is the added flavour of the prosciutto which, (to my taste) imparts a slightly "gone off" taste to a perfectly cooked fillet and obliterates the mushroom duxelle.

As an aside, I am very surprised that a BBC supported website uses an American spell checker for the comments page - damned annoying!

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Questions (15)

Becky Smale29th Nov, 2016

I want to make this for Christmas dinner this year but I don't fancy spending all morning in the kitchen. Can I make the mushroom duxelles or sear the beef a few days in advance and freeze it for assembly on Christmas Eve? Any advice appreciated.

Should I cook the wellington straight from the fridge or bring to room temperature first? Could make quite a difference between medium rare and well done I think. Thanks for your time and sharing your recipes.

Cook the Wellington from chilled, as this will ensure that the pastry is well cooked and the meat is not overdone. For additional tips scan to the bottom of the recipe where you will find a tip called 'How to make this recipe' as there is a helpful link that gives advice on cooking it rare, medium or well done.

This isn't something that we have tried, and you will get a different result, as the meat won't be rare, but we think the best advice, as it is a tougher cut, would be to cook it slowly in beef stock and red wine, with onions and bay or thyme, for several hours until tender then cool it, dry it really well then carry on from step 2.

Hi carrieetter, thanks for your question. Unfortunately this really does need to be cooked with the whole quantities. A smaller piece of meat will take less time to cook but the pastry on the outside will still take about the same length of time regardless. This means that using a smaller quantity of meat will either lead to overcooked meat on the inside of the wellington or undercooked pastry on the outside.

Hi miss_tweed, thanks for your question. The time and temperature stated in the recipe are right for cooking the pastry as well as the fillet inside but they wouldn’t be suitable for a cut like top rump and would mean that the meat inside would be very tough as a result. Top rump would be great as a roasting joint though so you could serve that with some fried mushrooms or a mushroom sauce on the side instead. Hope this helps.

I have cooked this receipe several times and it's never failed to impress. If, however, you are a little pressed for time, I've discovered that substituting Sainsbury's mushroom pate for the duxelle works just as well and saves a lot of kitchen time.

Superb recipe and worth the effort - it has become a family special occasion classic. However, timing is an issue. My saviour has been a professional standard meat thermometer (thermapen). Relying on the temp rather than timing had given perfect results. Useful for lots of other stuff too so for keen cooks, a brilliant investment.

Although it's not a quick meal to prepare, this recipe is pretty straightforward and the result is definitely the best Beef Wellington version that I've tried!

I also wonder if the timings are a little off - on both occasions that I've made this, it's turned out to be very rare, despite only cooling the meat for 20 minutes. Obviously things will vary from oven to oven, but on the first occasion I followed the timings for medium-rare but even the ends of the meat were barely rare, and I had to pan-fry the meat for a couple of my guests who preferred their meat a little less blue. Next time I followed the timings for medium, and the result was rare but not blue, which was what I'd been aiming for. I guess another 5 minutes on the first cooking and perhaps 5-10 minutes on the second would be required for medium, although I'm unsure what impact that might have on the pastry!

I see a number of people have had trouble with the timing. If the meat has only been in the fridge for 30 minutes to relax the pastry and ready it for the oven then the timing is probably about right. However if the meat has been in the fridge for hours (up to 24 hours it says in the recipe) then it will need a lot longer to cook as the internal temperature will be far lower.You can either cook for longer but then you risk burning the pastry or you can let the meat come up to room temperature for say an hour.As well, meat will keep "cooking" while resting so if there is any doubt as to it being too rare just let it sit out of the oven in a warm non-drafty place for longer (the other day I let it sit a whole 45 minutes to an hour "just to be safe" as i didn't want to risk it not being the right doneness. It was PERFECT and the juices had equaled out when the Wellington was sliced.

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